To Each His Own
by Arrhythmic Song
Summary: Collection of ReyShinn oneshots written for the endlessfuture 50 themes challenge on LJ. Rating will vary from G to PG13. Part One: Lunacy. So it was a warm night. So neither Shinn nor Rey could sleep. They chat instead. Part Two: First Impressions.
1. Lunacy

To Each His Own

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, this is a collection of Rey/Shinn fics, mostly one-shots, collectively titled _To Each His Own_, written for the endlessfuture 50 themes challenge. I have the sinking feeling that I've chosen a rather unpopular pairing to ship this time, but for those who do read, please do review. 

Standard Disclaimer: Pretty boys of SEED and SEED DESTINY not mine.

* * *

**Title:** Lunacy  
**Genres:** Gen, slight angst, very enthusiastic discussion of the concept of truth  
**Pairings:** Shinn/Rey  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** So it was a warm night. So neither Shinn nor Rey could sleep. Our two very bishounen pilots have a little chat instead.

* * *

It was rather too warm to sleep, Shinn thought, despite him having stripped the red coat off, dressed now only in the military-issue blue shirt and red trousers. Here on Earth... with the volatile changes in a volatile atmosphere, so unlike the controlled conditions of a PLANT, where everything was false, but everything was always true. To the people living on the PLANTs, that was home. 

Shinn didn't quite know what he considered home, floating out here in the middle of the Indian Ocean. He had called Orb home, and then that had fallen through in a flash of the Gundams and a blast from one of Freedom's guns. And he had tried to call PLANT home, but there was no one there, and at times the only thing that got him to sleep was a sleeping pill – it even got to the point where what the doctor was prescribing him was actually a _sedative_ – and Mayu's voice, playing over and over again on the handphone as he looped it, until the phone finally ran out of battery.

Finally exasperated after an hour of tossing and turning (the green glow of the digits of the clock said 2.04) he sat up in bed. Only to see the absence of Rey. The blond pilot wasn't in the room – neither at his accustomed place at the workstation, nor was he in his bed.

_Well, if Rey sees fit to get up and run about... _

Shinn decided to get up and run about.

The corridors of the Minerva were strange at night – fully lighted, although no one – or at least nearly no one – walked the halls, like a ghost ship, filled with silent grievances and the aftertang of battles. Silent. But somehow not as silent as space (did it unnerve him? Shinn wasn't quite sure) – the sounds of the outside world got in, creeping through the smallest of cracks and crevices... the sound of the sea, the sound of the birds... leading him to the deck.

The moon was fuller there, with a luminosity that you didn't see on PLANT... because some things just didn't compare. Because on PLANT deep down you knew it was all false, no matter how beautiful it was. And you could almost forget that the Earth Alliance used the moon as a base, that on that shining silver coin in the sky they prepared enemies to send against the Coordinator homeland. And the moon here waned and waxed but today, today of all days it was a perfectly round globe, pockmarked with indented craters, and it shone down on blonde hair.

'Rey?' Shinn said, tentatively wandering forward, out of the shadows.

Rey turned to face him, blue eyes showing no sign of surprise. That was Rey, Shinn silently mused – never surprised and always ready, always calm, always collected, and always, always so correct. In front of Zala, in front of the captain... except that he understood Shinn, understood why Shinn did certain things, and he knew Rey would always be an ally and a valuable one at that. And for that Shinn was immeasurably grateful.

'Why aren't you asleep?' Shinn asked, approaching the railings.

'Too warm,' came the short answer. That too was Rey, Shinn reflected, his simple answers, and his sense of firmness, which implied that he knew what he was on about. In a world where Shinn lived to fight and fought for no reason, Rey was a constant that made... sense. 'You should be in bed, _super-ace_.'

Shinn looked up in surprise before noting the slightly teasing look on Rey's face and relaxing. 'You're not too shabby yourself, you know.'

'Right,' Rey said, self-dismissive as always, moving slightly closer to Shinn. 'Earth is different, somehow.'

'Yes,' Shinn murmured in reply. 'Yes, it is.'

'There used to be a lot of stories surrounding the moon,' Rey told him, eyes fixed on the night sky. 'That under the light of a moon like this, people used to go mad and turn into wolves, driven by some kind of feral instinct, only to turn back into a human when the moon waned.'

'Sounds like a genetic experiment gone wrong,' Shinn commented doubtfully. 'Why in the world would people ever believe it was the moon?'

'Because at that time, the moon was far away, further than most humans ever went, ever would go. It was an unattainable, people said it was the palace and the home of immortals. And now we know the truth and romance is dead.'

'Truth is better.'

'Why?' Rey asked him. 'We all need something to believe in. And faith only comes when you cannot ascertain the facts of something.'

'I don't believe what I don't think is true,' Shinn replied.

'Really?' Rey asked, a small smile on his lips, one that Shinn recognized as the one Rey usually gave him. 'Then what about the basics in your life? Why do you believe that every time you get into Impulse, something won't go wrong, that one of the mechanics won't have tampered with it? Why do you believe in the ZAFT ideals? Why do you believe that you'll wake up every morning after falling asleep the night before?'

Shinn didn't answer, merely staring back out at the moon. 'There is no answer, is there, Rey?'

'Exactly,' Rey replied, turning away from the moon, placing one hand on Shinn's cheek, turning the other boy to face him. 'And that, Shinn, is why even the most pragmatic of people are only romantics in disguise.'

Shinn's hand crept up to Rey's, fingers lightly touching the back of that hand as if to ascertain the truth of the hand pressed against his face, staying like that for just a moment.

'Let's go back and try to sleep, shall we?' Rey asked, finally letting his hand fall, though the sense of the touch lingered with Shinn for a long, long time. He turned, leading Shinn back. Shinn followed, fighting the urge to touch his cheek. Maybe tomorrow they'd get up and act like this had never happened, that it was merely the madness of the moon. _Luna_. Lunacy.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay? R&R, please! And if anyone finds good Rey/Shinn out there, please do tell me. I can't locate any. 


	2. First Impressions

To Each His Own

* * *

Author's Note: As always, written for endlessfuture 50 themes at LJ. This one is nothing more than a long drabble - way over hundred, but not quite long enough to be anything else. Nonetheless, I hope it's enjoyable, as always. Please R&R!

* * *

**Title:** First Impressions  
**Genres:** Romance  
**Pairings:** Shinn/Rey  
**Word Count:** 369  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** FIRST IMPRESSIONS. (Gosh, it's so sad to have the same words for your TITLE, your THEME, and your SUMMARY.)

* * *

Shinn's first impressions of Rey had been rather... alright. That was the only word to say about it: _alright_, because Rey wasn't a person easily given to contact. Even after years of association, Rey wasn't an easy person to _know_, Shinn reflected, snuggling closer to the blonde boy. 'Rey?'

'Remember the first day we met?'

Rey smiled softly, and one hand went around Shinn's neck to bring him closer. 'Yes. I remember.'

They had been trainees, sitting in a classroom, and the teacher had told them to mingle, to make friends. Shinn had debated talking to Rey, but decided not to. He didn't know why, but Shinn instinctively felt that Rey wasn't a person who would easily make friends. People got the sense that he was an okay guy, but he wasn't the sort to be friendly, especially on a first day in an academy where they were all striving to make _something _of themselves, to distinguish themselves from the rest, to impress the teachers and prove to them that they could be the best.

So Shinn had abandoned the thought of socializing too much with him and begun to talk to Lunamaria, who was both lively and competitive and cheered him up almost effortlessly, simply with a smile, when he had started to think of his parents, Mayu, the reason why he was in ZAFT.

So Shinn didn't think about Rey till that night, when he found out that himself and Rey were in the same room – in other words, that he would have to live with the blond boy for the next three years at least. So that night, Shinn had turned over in bed to face Rey – already beginning his workaholic habits at the workstation. 'It's Rey, isn't it? Rey za Burrel.'

'Yes,' Rey had replied, at least taking his eyes off the screen to look at him, although his fingers never stopped moving at their rapid pace. 'And you're-'

'Shinn. Shinn Asuka.'

Rey had smiled at him, then. 'Yes. I know.'

And for no reason at all, Shinn had blushed, and Rey had smiled even more and turned back to his work. And there and then Shinn had revised his first impression of Rey upwards.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, that was it. Please, R&R, especially if you liked it! 


End file.
